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The Eagle-Gazette Staff

Lee, a 6-foot-1 junior, threw four first-half interceptions against Northridge on Friday, including back-to-back picks that were returned for touchdowns. They turned a 13-6 deficit into a 28-6 lead for the Vikings at halftime.

“Every play, whether it is a success or a failure, I’m going to learn from it, including my four interceptions,” Lee said. “The only thing I can do now is improve.”

Two of the interceptions were caused by high throws from Lee, which is something Fairfield Christian coach B.J. Queen said happens to young quarterbacks when they are under pressure.

“The young and inexperienced kids get a little hyper and excited, and when that happens, the ball tends to sail, and that’s what happened to him,” Queen said. “Unfortunately, it was one of those nights where you pay for it with points on the board instead of paying for it with fourth down.”

It would have been easy for Lee to sulk after that kind of first-half performance, but he kept his head up. When the Knights were facing a fourth-and-11 midway through the fourth quarter, Lee had a play in mind that he wanted to run.

Queen agreed to it, and Lee delivered by throwing a 13-yard touchdown pass to Jacob Walker.

“It was tough, especially being a new quarterback and throwing four interceptions. It was a little disheartening,” Lee said. “But thanks to my teammates and coaches encouraging me every step of the way, it was easy to come back.

“I just felt it would be a good play, and I was starting to regain my confidence, so I took that step of asking if we could run that play.”

Queen added, “I granted him that because it was a learning experience. Playing quarterback is really hard because when you are doing well everyone cheers for you, but when you throw two pick-sixes in a row, you are trying to hide. Even though the game didn’t turn out the way we wanted it to, at least he bounced back and realized you are going to have highs and lows in a game.”

Moving forward, Lee hopes he doesn’t have another game like Friday’s. Regardless what happens, the biggest lesson he learned was to keep playing and that good things eventually will happen.

“Knowing that I ended on a good note with that play and it was successful, it’s a great confidence-booster,” Lee said. “The quarterback position is the leader of the team, and I always want to be there for my teammates.